Switched power supplies have switches that turn off and on or change resistance to control an output voltage. Some of the power supplies include a high-side switch and a low-side switch coupled in series between an input voltage and ground. The output is a node coupled between the high-side switch and the low-side switch. The power supplies have inherent inductance, which causes ringing on the output voltage when the switches change state.
The rate at which the switches change state is sometimes referred to as dv/dt or the slew rate and can affect other components in the power supply or components coupled to the power supply. If the slew rate is too fast, high frequency components of the switch signal can propagate throughout the power supply and interfere with its operation. If the slew rate is too slow, the efficiency of the power supply will decrease. Therefore, the slew rate has to be within certain limitations.